Her Name was Clementine
by HeartyBuns
Summary: This is the story of Alvin Jr. Growing up with Clementine, a strong woman who he greatly looked up to. She was strong, and through every battle she fought bravely- all just for his own sake. Only still a child but yet had experienced the death of so many people. Clementine warned him that everyone's time was limited, and some things, he just has to learn on his own.
1. PROLOUGE - Her Name was Clementine

**PROLOUGE**

He remembered a face.

He remembered many faces.

Although those faces were blurred and obscured due to them being a distant memory, he had an idea of who they were.

The first face he remembered was a face of a woman. He didn't know who she was but that was the first face he remembered. Her skin was dark and hair curly. He guessed it could have mostly been his mother.

The other face he remembered a little more than the woman's. It was the face of a man. His hair was long and grey, and he had bandaged eye. He wore the hat that he would wears today and to the day of his death.

_She_ would tell stories of that man to him, along with many other stories that took place before he was born. _She_ was the one who had told him what had happened in the years he could not remember. _She _would tell him who those faces were whenever he asked and _she _would always be glad to tell him the same stories over and over again.

The stories that took place before he was born.

The stories that took place when he could not remember them.

The stories that took place in a much happier, peaceful time.

_She_ was his mother figure. The one he always looked up to. _She_ took care of him for those many years and taught him words, and even though she thought it was useless, she taught him how to read and write to the best of her own ability, only because he persisted. He wanted to read the words of the rotting signs and read the stories that were not real; the stories that _she _would read to him as a past-time.

_She _was the one who fed him.

_She_ was the one who protected him.

_She _was the one who loved him, when everyone that once did had died.

_Her name was Clementine._


	2. Chapter 1-Teaching a Child Something New

**CHAPTER 1- Teaching a Child Something New**

"What are we doing today, Ma?" a young boy said, walking through the forest trail, squatting down next to the woman watching intently at the rabbit behind a bush.

"Shhhhh! Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" She tried to keep quiet, but it was to no avail. The rabbit had already hopped away. "Dammit…"she sighed agitatedly.

"Oh… sorry ma… I didn't know…" he pouted and stared at the ground. She responded with a sigh, and smiled up at him.

"AJ, Why do you keep calling me that? Didn't I say you can call me by my name? Unless you forgot it, since you keep callin' me 'ma' all the time."

"Well- it's because you just are like a ma- ma- um, I mean, Clementine. You said it yourself. Mas- mothers, moms- they're important women in life aren't they? They're the ones that take care of you, feed you, and love you…"Clementine smiled as he heard his rambling. It made her think back of a conversation she had with him, a long time ago when he was just a child. And now when she looks at him, she's amazed just how much he's grown. He's now an adolescent young boy, but it just seemed like yesterday he was only a kid.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Clementine." Said a much, younger looking AJ, his face round and cheeks puffy, "What is a 'mom?'" he said, interrupting one of Clementine's stories.<p>

They were sitting around a campfire crossed-legged while Clementine was cooking a rabbit over a fire. It was summer then, and the weather was perfect. It was not as humid as it was during the day, and they used this to finally relax. They were secluded by the thick trees of a forest, and there were no walkers seen for miles.

Clementine thought for a moment. Silence surrounded the two of them for a while, until she finally conjured up an answer to his question.

"Well- AJ-. A mom is a woman who gave life to you. They take care of you, and feed you, and give you lots of love. Yeah. That's what a mom is. You can also call moms 'mother' or 'ma' if you get tired of saying mom."

"So… Clementine is my mom, then?" She laughed slightly at first, but then realized that he has never met his own true mother.

"Well- no. Your real mom is-"

"My real mom?"

"-yes, the one that gave birth to you. The one that gave life to you."

"Where is she now? If you're not my real mom, then how come my real mom isn't here with us? Didn't you say that a mom is someone who loves you?" Clementine frowned.

"You're mom's not here right now."

"Where is she then?"

Clementine sighed.

"She's dead, AJ." And then she left it that, deciding to tell him about it at a later time.

And then silence fell upon them.

* * *

><p>Clementine put a hand on AJ, still squatting, and looked up at him.<p>

"It's alright. Call me ma all you want then." She smiled, and then stood up. "You know. I think it's time I taught you how to hunt." AJ's face brightened up, a broad smile replacing his frown.

"Really?!" Clementine nodded.

It was a long process of trial and error. Many times the rabbit had run away when he made silly mistakes such as stepping on a stray twig. But finally with guidance from Clementine, he was finally able to catch the small animal. When he grows, he will be taught how to catch larger prey like deer, and find edible berries. These were skills that she would be passing on to him, skills she had to learn herself during those long times were she had to depend on her own.


	3. Chapter 3- Small World

**CHAPTER 2- Small World**

_"…__Please." She begged. But her cries fell on deaf ears. Her hand was cold, and it was shaking. Seeing that she had no choice, she pulled the trigger, and shot Kenny. _

_He grasped his chest in shock, falling off of Jane. _

_"__Are you okay?" Clementine asked teary eyed. _

_Jane, gasping for air, replied. "Yeah… yeah, I think so."_

_Clementine walked up to her old friend. The pool of blood beneath him was growing larger with each passing second. She kneeled besides the dying man, ready to hear his last words. _

_"__Clem…" he breathed. "You made the right choice. I let you down." He coughed. "I let everyone down." Clementine was whimpering now, and the pain in her heart was more noticeable than the stinging cold of the harsh winter. _

_"__Why did you make me do this?"_

_"__I'm sorry Clementine…" His voice was raspy now. "We almost made it…we were close, weren't we?" He coughed. "I thought… I wanted this. I asked for it… so many times. Now that it's happenin'- I'm scared." His coughing grew stronger, and he was almost struggling to speak. In his last few moments, Clementine decided to comfort him. To reassure him. _

_"__It's okay, Kenny. You're… you're going to see Katjaa and Duck." She held his hand, and with his last bit of strength, he held hers back. "You're going to see them again." He smiled, charmed by her kindness._

_"__Oh, you're always good for a smile…" Then Kenny laid down still, and when he closed his eyes for the last time, he looked like a man at peace. _

_And then she heard the cries of an infant. _

_Surprised, she ran to the source of the noise. In a stray car she found him, lying in the backseat of the car. _

_"__Oh my god… AJ!" She whispered looking at the car window. She hurriedly opened the door and grabbed him in his arms. His crying ceased almost at that exact moment he was held. "…Are you okay?" Jane caught up to her, and when she did, Clementine stared her down sternly with anger and contentment. "He's alive!" _

_"__I understand if you're upset." She said quickly. "AJ was never in any danger- I was just… going to try to talk you into coming with me. I just thought if you saw Kenny like that- you'd know we'd have to leave him… I didn't think Kenny would go that far." Clementine was angered. Jane had put everyone's life at risk just to prove a point. Clementine understood that Kenny was a dangerous, violent man at times but he was still a human, yet she says it like he's some dangerous animal that needs to be kept in a cage._

_"__Upset ? You're fucking crazy! How could you do this?!" Clementine rarely cursed, but in this situation, it was almost necessary. _

_"__You saw how he reacted. I had to show you what he was capable of."_

_"__So you put AJ in danger… and got my friend killed… just to prove a point?!" Her voice raised. _

_"__It was a stupid plan." Jane sighed. "I should never have lied to you. But I thought it was the only way you'd see." _

_"__Oh my god…"she gasped. "Kenny." Clementine's emotions were mixed. She was angry at Jane for what she had done and now she had regretted having to kill Kenny for a lost cause. _

_"__You have to forgive me." Jane's voice was shaking. "Please… we can just leave this all behind us… please." Her eyes were glistening with tears waiting to be dropped. "…I did it for you, Clem."_

_Bullshit. _

_She did it for herself. _

_To get rid of Kenny. _

_"__I'm not going anywhere with you…" She did not yell, but yet those words had hurt Jane's ears. The tone of Clementine's voice was of pure anger. Clementine turned around, and walked away._

_"__Clem- please…" Jane went after her, and then stopped herself. Clementine walked away, as far as she could, not looking back. Jane knew she did not deserve her pity, but persisted still, hoping for a second chance. "I did this for you! I can't do this alone… okay? Is that what you want to hear?!" She watched her walk away. "…Clem?" _

* * *

><p>Nine days later, the winter subsided into the warm season of spring. During those nine days, Clementine felt herself become stronger. During those nine days, it had only been her and AJ alone. She used everything she learned to survive.<p>

Trotting through a field of dry grass, she looked up to see a small hoard of walkers slowly marching towards her. Without fear and with a bold stare she looked directly at them. She knew what to do.

She held a calm composure, looking around. Conveniently, she found a walker lying on the ground, growling. Clementine retrieved her axe that she had found in those nine days alone, and struck the walker on its head, blood spilling everywhere. Instinctively, she bathed herself and AJ in the blood of the walker. She remembered the first time she did this, how young she was. She wanted to go back to being the squeamish and innocent girl she once was.

But she knew she couldn't.

The way she was now was shaped by the effects of the horrible world she lives in. She thought rationally now, not caring for morals. She could not trust anybody anymore.

Fearlessly she walked passed the hoard, passing by each one of them with ease. AJ was obediently quiet the whole way, and did not make a sound. Clementine was confident in the progress they were making, until he looked up to see something she did not want to.

_She saw __**him.**_

Her legs shook as she walked, but she knew better then to draw attention to herself. His eyes were white and his face was pale. His skin was rotting. He was missing half of his left arm and his right hand. Horrible memories came back to her.

Clementine tried everything to dismiss it. No. It wasn't him. It was only someone that looked like him. Someone with that same blue button up shirt and jeans.

_Just someone with one arm._

_Just someone that looked like the man that taught her how to shoot a gun. _

_Just someone that looked exactly like her father-figure._

_Just someone that looked like Lee. _

She gritted her teeth in anger and held on to AJ tightly, walking faster. Soon she passed the hoard and dropped on her knees on the field. Lightly putting down AJ first, she buried her face into her hands and cried. Having been reminded of a horrible memory was overwhelming. She cried and cried, until she realized that she had to move on for the sake of her own survival and for AJ.

She didn't know how long she had been crying for, because when she looked up, she saw a pair of feet in front of her. And then she took a better look, and saw that those pair of feet belonged to a woman she met before.

"…Molly?" Clementine choked. How long has it been? Her outfit remained the same and her blonde messy hair had grown just a little bit longer. Molly was just as shocked as she was, and her eyes opened.

"C-Clementine?" Clementine eye's grew wide. She stood up, carrying AJ in her arms. "I…" Molly stopped, and smiled. "It's good to see you again."


End file.
